Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, left, introduces former Mayor Bob Foster to a crowd at a July 29, 2019 ceremony marking the opening of the new Long Beach Civic Center. Garcia is yelling because the sound system failed during the event. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

LONG BEACH — When people in Long Beach talk about Mayor Robert Garcia’s career potential, as political junkies here are fond of doing, they often say something like this: He checks all the boxes for diversity-minded Democratic voters. He’s young. He’s Latino. He’s an immigrant. He’s openly gay.

The idea that these are political advantages, not disadvantages, isn’t so obvious to Garcia.

“A couple of months ago, I was on the street, and someone drove their car (past him) and yelled, ‘Hey, it’s the F-A-G-G-O-T mayor.’ That happens. I knocked on doors when I ran for mayor and people refused to talk to me because I’m gay,” Garcia said.

“We live in a world where most folks are accepting. But a lot of folks are not.”

That was a rare dark moment for Garcia during an interview at a cafe a short walk from his office. Admirers describe him as a born optimist with infectious enthusiasm, and it comes through in conversation.

These days, the second-term mayor has a lot to be upbeat about.

A new City Hall and Port of Long Beach headquarters opened July 29, the gleaming structures in the waterfront downtown reflecting a building boom in Long Beach, which boasts about 70 active projects. During Garcia’s five years in office, Long Beach has made plans to host the California Democratic Party’s convention this fall and at least a half-dozen events in the 2028 Summer Olympics, which will be based in Los Angeles. Garcia can point to statistics showing crime and unemployment both falling, while homelessness in Long Beach rising at a slower rate than it is in nearby cities.

Garcia’s center-left, progressive but pro-business approach has pleased even some groups that don’t ordinarily lavish praise on Democratic elected officials.

“They (Long Beach leaders) deal with their housing. They deal with their homeless,” said Tracy Hernandez, CEO of the Los Angeles County Business Federation. “You can’t say that about L.A. city. Don’t get me going on L.A. city.”

Garcia isn’t well-known outside Long Beach, whose population of 470,000 would make it the biggest city in 29 U.S. states. Most of the L.A.-area political scientists and strategists contacted for this story said they knew too little about Garcia to comment.

But that might be changing. Garcia got statewide attention in February when Gov. Gavin Newsom visited Long Beach and called the mayor’s promotion of housing construction and homeless services a “model.”

And he hit the national stage for the first time in July when he made a two-day, four-city trip to Iowa to campaign for California Sen. Kamala Harris’ presidential bid.

The connection to Harris, whom Garcia endorsed in May, boosts the 41-year-old’s prospects by providing visibility, contacts and campaign experience, said Marcia Godwin, a University of La Verne professor of public administration who has paid attention to Garcia.

“If Harris wins the nomination, he (Garcia) would be in position to have a role at the national (Democratic) convention. Even if Harris doesn’t win, he might be able to join in general election campaigning and set himself up for a federal political appointment,” Godwin said.

“Alternatively, he could also set himself up for a run for a statewide office, the House (of Representatives), or even the U.S. Senate.”

Back home in Long Beach, Garcia watchers are thinking big.

“I really do expect he’ll be the first (modern) Latino governor of the state of California,” said Val Lerch, a former Long Beach city councilman.

More to prove

One disadvantage of being hailed as a “rising star” is that people start to see your every move as a political calculation. They wonder if you’re a sincere public servant or an ambitious opportunist. They ask if you’re willing to take controversial, principled stands, or if you’re prone toward caution, leading from behind.

On the other hand, one advantage of being viewed as a governor or U.S. senator in the making is that people want to stay on your good side, and even some opponents shy away from criticizing you on the record.

Interviews with Garcia supporters and critics paint a picture of a mayor who is not without vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a foe in any campaign for higher office.

Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia delivers his annual State of the City address at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2019. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)

One potential red flag for Democratic voters: Garcia used to be a Republican.

He changed his party registration to Democratic in 2007, less than two years before he won his first run for public office, a 2009 special election to fill the District 1 City Council seat left vacant when Bonnie Lowenthal was elected to the state Assembly.

Garcia brushed off the insinuation that he switched parties to appeal to Long Beach’s mostly Democratic electorate.

As he tells it, he started out as a Republican because of his family’s admiration for President Ronald Reagan, whose signature on a 1986 immigration reform bill allowed the Garcias to become U.S. citizens.

Born in Lima, Peru, Garcia had come to this country on a visa with his mother, Gabriela, when he was 5, escaping danger from the terrorist group the Shining Path. They settled in the San Gabriel Valley, where Gabriela worked as a housekeeper, but they overstayed their visas. Garcia said they were applying for legal resident status when the 1986 change in immigration law gave amnesty — and a path to citizenship — to many unauthorized immigrants.

“I remember seeing (Reagan) on TV and thinking, ‘This is the guy who’s giving us an opportunity to become Americans. And becoming American is the best thing that ever happened to us,” Garcia said. “When I walked out of the (L.A. County) fairgrounds after becoming a U.S. citizen, it was very easy to walk up to a big cutout of Ronald Reagan and register to vote as a Republican.”

But by 2007, Garcia said the GOP “didn’t feel like home” anymore. The reason, he said, was that he “understood who I was… that I was gay, and that I was bothered by the war in Iraq.”

Critics see a flaw in that explanation. Garcia was not just a Republican voter, he also was founder of the Long Beach Young Republicans, and the California Youth Coordinator for George. W. Bush’s first presidential campaign. He worked as chief of staff for a Republican, then-Long Beach City Councilman Frank Colonna.

Of his Republican activism, Garcia said, “I did a lot of stupid things in my 20s.”

His current political identity is decidedly blue. Long Beach’s first Latino and first openly gay mayor has an original Barack Obama “Hope” poster in his office, a nod to the patron saint of barrier-breaking Democrats. His governing philosophy celebrates the liberal safety net.

“I think, as a society, if we try to help people who need help the most, that’s a great value,” Garcia said. “That might be viewed as progressive, but I think it’s just the right thing to do.”

What’s next?

Progressive but pro-development, Garcia can catch it from both sides.

From pockets of anti-tax, anti-City Hall sentiment in Long Beach comes anger over the 2016 passage of Measure A, a $48 million-a-year city sales-tax increase backed by Garcia (as well as Beverly O’Neill and Bob Foster, the two previous mayors) to pay for infrastructure maintenance, increased police and fire staffing, and other services. From the left comes fear that all this development will lead to gentrification that will displace poor residents. From good-government advocates come blasts about what they see as a shortage of transparency and accountability in city government.

Garcia cites Measure A as an example of his taking a controversial stand, and some others agree.

“I give him (Garcia) credit for being a big booster of the city and someone who knows how to harness the media for the benefit of the perception of the city,” said Ian Patton, executive director of the Long Beach Reform Coalition. “But I would say, on the critical side, the city staff — and this is not entirely the responsibility of the mayor — is not nearly as responsive to the people as it needs to be.

“I would hope the mayor would ramp up his track record on government reform, political reform and campaign finance reform type issues; use the position he’s in now to pursue that platform,” Patton said. “He would have a record to run on for higher office.”

Garcia caught more heat for backing 2018’s ultimately successful Measure BBB, which changed term-limit rules for Long Beach mayors and city council members. The old rules had allowed two four-year terms, after which incumbents could run as write-in candidates for more terms. The new rules allow a total of three terms but no write-ins.

The change defines the speculation about what Garcia will do next. He could run for a third term as mayor in 2022.

That speculation grew louder Monday, Aug. 5, when Garcia announced that he was transferring about $161,000 in campaign funds left over from his 2018 mayoral re-election to a campaign committee for a 2026 run for California Lieutenant Governor. He said it was simply a place to park the money, which had to be transferred somewhere under city election laws, not a declaration of his plans.

Foster, the previous mayor and a Garcia admirer, said he thinks Garcia will run for re-election as mayor and actually does have his eye on the state’s No. 2 position “as a steppingstone to governor.”

“I think Robert — and we have talked about this — wants to be in executive office,” Foster said. “He wants to be the person responsible.”

But observers say a House seat could appeal to Garcia if Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, were to retire.

Lowenthal, 78, said he absolutely is running for Congress again in 2020 but could decide to step down before the 2022 election if President Trump wins re-election.

“If that’s the direction the nation wants to go, it will cause a lot of us to reassess,” Lowenthal said after the July 29 opening ceremony for the new City Hall and Port of Long Beach headquarters.

Garcia addressed the questions about what’s next in an Aug. 6 interview. He wore a blazer (no tie), a platinum wedding ring marking his December 2018 marriage to longtime partner Matt Mendez, and a Cambodian good-luck bracelet. Relaxed, and for good reason — he doesn’t have to decide on his future anytime soon — he said he hasn’t ruled anything out, even a return to his former life in academia, having taught courses in communication and pubic policy at USC, Cal State Long Beach and Long Beach City College.

“I love being mayor,” Garcia said. “What am I going to do after this? The truth is I don’t know.

“But I do like to feel I’m part of a team trying to make things better. In government, we’re in the business of helping people. I like to be in the business of helping people.”

Kevin Modesti is a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News and the Southern California News Group, covering Rams football and other sports. An L.A. native, he has been a sports writer, columnist and editor, an editorial board member, writer and editor in the Opinion section, and a political reporter. He lives in the San Fernando Valley.

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